Customer Reviews

. . . and His Lovely Wife: A Memoir from the Woman Beside the Man

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This book came out just in time for me to buy it for my niece, who is graduating from high school and wants to be president. You might think that a book about being a candidate's wife isn't the right present for a young woman who wants to run the country herself. But Connie Schultz isn't just any wife, and she and her husband -- Ohio's junior senator, Sherrod Brown -- aren't who we've come to think of as typical pols. I want my niece to know that you don't have to lose your heart, your humanity, or your sense of humor when you decide to run for office. I want her to care as much about real people, working people, as Schultz and Brown do. I want her to see the realities of politics and see that people can have real fun while trying to make things better. How do I know all this about a book I bought for my niece? Because I started to read it before I wrapped it, and hours later I was still reading, reading even as I went in search of Kleenex to wipe my tears. I got online now to buy half a dozen more copies. Do I have that many relatives who want to be president? Nope. I live in New Hampshire, where the 2008 presidential election has heated up early. I don't know if I'll have the nerve to hand a copy to a candidate, but I know that all of us -- candidates, campaign workers, voters -- need this book's blend of hope and honesty.

So many political memiors are thank you notes to supporters or influential people who can advance a politician's career. But, Ms. Schultz's book provides an outsider a view to the inside of a political campaign as well as to her inner most thoughts (at times) when it came to dealing with her own identity issues. As the book (and campaign) progresses, the reader can see how the humor and energy changes. This is a great read that will take you, from the wife's perspective, through the underbelly of how campaign strategy works and how the opponent's tricks play upon the candidate. It will take you, as well, through the inter mind workings of an intelligent woman who had to change her life and put her career on hold to support someone she loves.

This is not your normal political read. You do not need to be a "political junkie" to enjoy it. Anyone who has ever evaluated their own life, or had to deal with society's stereotypes of how wives and women are to "be"; or just want a good read with humor and insight on life thrown in, will enjoy this book.

Anyone who had read Pulitzer Prize-winner Connie Schultz's columns knows that she doesn't just have, as the old cliche goes, a "unique voice." She has unique ears and unique eyes. She doesn't just tell us what she thinks--she sees things that others miss; she hears what others tune out, and then uses her voice to help us understand what is important as we face the challenges ahead. And of course, she makes us laugh and cry in the process. With those talents, Ms. Schultz has helped free the wrongfully convicted, see that those being ripped off by their employers received the pay to which they were entitled, and righted countless other injustices large and small.

In this book, Ms. Schultz takes her usual approach to service-oriented journalism one step further. She provides us with an extraordinarily intimate and candid portrait of what it is like to be a woman with an independent professional identity who puts aside her career for a time to undertake a shared journey with her husband as he runs for one of the highest offices in the land. The resulting story is a portrait of love, sacrifice, occasional self doubt, exhaustion, exhilaration, and commitment to the highest ideals of public service.

It is possible for people who come from the humblest of upbringings to retain their values, stand on their parents' shoulders to use their talents, listen to others' voices who are crying out for help, and work tirelessly for the opportunity to serve--even as the daggers are pointed at their backs. (In this respect, C. Tass's review is completely unfair and outrageous--I don't think this person could have even read the book.)

Ms. Schultz holds little back and it is the raw honesty of this book that is the greatest reward. Even though you know the campaign ends in victory, you still won't be able to put this book down, because every obstacle that Ms. Schultz and her husband, now-U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, face provides insight into the drive required to attain power. One leaves the book confident that the power attained will be used to give America's forgotten people--those who work hard and play by the rules--a fighting chance.

Whether you are interested in what makes a strong family relationships work or are just a political junkie, this book is for you.

Schultz writes with humor and passion. She was there every inch of the way as her husband Sherrod Brown fought the underdog's battle and knocked off the incumbent Ohio senator, Mike DeWine. Political junkies will love this inside look at the campaign that shifted the balance of power in the US Senate.

Most telling, Schultz and Brown are progressives with strong Christian beliefs, a real slap across the kisser for all those holier than thou right wingers who trumpet their family values while having affairs on the side: Newt Gingrich-please don't run for office again.

Connie Schultz, ...And His Lovely Wife: A Memoir from the Woman Beside the Man (Random House, 2007)

I told myself when I started reading ...And His Lovely Wife that I would try to keep my feelings for Sherrod Brown's politics out of this review, but the farther I got into this book, the more impossible that seemed. Connie Schultz is, if anything, more of an idealist hardliner than her now-Senatorial spouse, so it would be an Herculean task to separate the politics from the writing. The policies that terrified me during the thankfully short time I lived in Brown's Congressional district are not only applauded by Schultz, but held up by her as the reasons Brown got himself elected Senator (and more so as the very reasons he should have gotten elected). Sometimes I fear for the collective sanity of our nation. Any time I buried my nose in the pages of this book (and I mean that quite literally; I'm one of those odd folks who loves that particular odor of paper, ink, and glue that comprises "new-book smell"), "sometimes" came a-runnin'. But still, I shall do my best to focus on Connie Schultz' writing rather than her (and her husband's) politics.

The campaign trail is considered an unavoidable fact of political life these days. There are a lot of books out there written by or about politicians, but very few of them focus on the campaign trail, and none of those (that I am aware of) focus on the impact the campaign trail has on family life. Enter Connie Schultz, wife of Ohio Senatorial candidate Sherrod Brown, to fill the gap. And fill it she does, rather creidbly. I will warn you, as I intimated above, that if your political viewpoint is antithetical to Brown's, there are large parts of this book that will rankle, but the end result is the same: Schultz' focus is on the human interactions of the campaign trail far more than the political. That said, it's worth noting that Schultz doesn't seem to think her family's experience was typical, a sentiment that was noted by a number of other candidates' and elected officials' wives.

If you've read Schultz' columns (and with the recent release of her collected-columns book, more of those outside the Cleveland area have probably done so), you've got a good idea of what to expect from the writing here-- acerbic, witty, observant. The downside is the same as it usually is when a columnist writes a book: this reads like a two-hundred-eighty-page newspaper column. What is good in small doses can get stale over the course of one hundred thousand or so words. Best to approach this with the intention of reading small bites at a time; I found, once I got into the rhythm, that a chapter a day seemed to do the trick.

Could have been better, but not bad. ***

I was on a commercial flight from Cleveland to Washington last Spring. It was a particularly windy day and landing at DCA seemed problematic. On approach, one wing would dip and then the other. There was no applause on landing, but a collective exhale. Ohio's junior Senator, Sherrod Brown, was on that flight.

Connie Schultz is Sherrod's wife, a Pulitzer prize winning columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. ...and His Lovely Wife is her account of discovering the vicissitudes of Ohio politics through the eyes of a campaign wife during her husband's 2006 run for the Senate. The title comes from her irritation at the awkward manner in which she was frequently introduced by those not yet comfortable with married couples with different last names.

The book is a fascinating study of politics and romance, written with great humor and frequently great insight. It is especially readable because of the inclusion of details like Connie's insistance that her husband pledge not to fly in small airplanes during the campaign - too much of a temptation to fly when you shouldn't - too many dead candidates from choosing wrong:something I found ironic after that Spring landing in Washington.

O.K., I'm from Ohio. O.K., I'm sort of a political junkie. O.K. I'm a longtime Sherrod Brown fan. This book just sucked me through. After the few days it took be to go through it, my only disappointment was that there was not more.

I took an interest in Sherrod Brown's campaign early on. I am a progressive and he was featured in one of my magazines before the primary that never was with Hackett. I heard Connie Schultz interviewed on Fresh Air with Terry Gross and I became intrigued by the subject matter.

That said, I found the book enjoyable and entertaining. Connie is a funny, independent woman as is evidenced by her writing. It is a political memoir, make no mistake, but it does give readers insight into how their relatively short marriage lasted (and even thrived) in a political campaign. I also enjoyed info. about the Hackett factor. Connie's insight about going from being a columnist to giving only her husband's opinions was food for thought. The only criticism that I have is that you really don't get a good sense of who her husband is. You know his political battles/views and some quirky things about him but it still feels like an outline of the man. Maybe some of this is deliberate in the face of leading very public lives. Needless to say, I would recommend this book. I read it in a day and very much enjoyed myself.

Smart, funny, and honest, ...and His Lovely Wife shows how crushingly difficult it is to run for public office. It also demostrates that there are still some honorable politicians who care deeply about average people. And there are dishonorable politicians willing to lie and slander in order to hang on to their power. (The incumbent Sherrod Brown defeated accused John Glenn--John Glenn--f being unpatriotic and soft on communism. The mind boggles.)


The book is also a lot of fun. Not surprisingly, Connie Schultz writes very well (Pulitzers are not given out as Cracker Jack prizes), and she can be very funny about the lunacy of campaigning. I'm glad Ms. Shultz has been able to go back to her life as a journalist, and I hope this book is read by everyone who cares about American politics and government.

The book kept me reading! Connie opens a window on what politicians and their families go through during the campaign process. She is articulate and funny. I found myself emotionally captivated. Very interesting given the current elections underway.

Enjoyed the radio interviews with the author, but I found the book too self-serving, too political.